A Mayhem of Murderous Monks (The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage Book 21) by Howard of Warwick

Author:Howard of Warwick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Funny Book Company
Published: 2021-02-27T13:00:00+00:00

Caput XV: Children Should Be…

‘A young boy?’ Hermitage asked with surprise. ‘Surely not.’

‘You don’t know him,’ Greville moaned. ‘He’s horrible.’

‘He’s only about twelve,’ Cwen said.

‘Thirteen,’ Greville corrected. ‘That’s thirteen years of practising to be horrible. And he’s practised so hard that he’s now very good at it.’

‘Surely he wouldn’t kill anyone, not really,’ Hermitage protested.

‘He’s killed enough other things,’ Greville said. ‘You can’t leave him alone for a moment.’

Cwen was shaking her head. ‘He wanted us to get his money back from Egeus. He wouldn’t do that if he’d killed him.’

‘Get his money back?’ Greville squeaked. ‘He hasn’t got any money.’

‘Thought so,’ Wat said. ‘He’s given some of Ralf’s money to Egeus and I don’t think Ralf knows about it.’

‘He certainly doesn’t,’ Greville confirmed with some worry. ‘And if he finds out there really will be a murder.’

Hermitage tutted at that. ‘A father would not kill his own son over such a matter.’

‘Only a youngest son,’ Greville explained. ‘Ralf’s eldest will take the estate. He’s also called Ralf. Roger’s only tolerated in case something happens to his brother. And if Roger got behind his brother on a dark night, something probably would happen.

‘Now that he’s turned thirteen his father’s going to pack him off to a monastery. Then we’ll all sleep safer in our beds.’

‘This monastery?’ Wat asked.

‘I shouldn’t think so,’ Greville considered the suggestion. ‘They might have heard about him. No, it’d need to be somewhere far away.’

Cwen had a wry smile on her face. ‘And who should be around at just such a moment? The Brother with monasteries in his pockets; Egeus.’

Hermitage couldn’t follow that. ‘I don’t follow,’ he said.

Cwen explained patiently. ‘So far, Brother Egeus has taken money from Normans who want to endow a nice prominent monastery, yes?’

‘Yes,’ Hermitage agreed.

‘He’s also taken money from monasteries who want to secure themselves a friendly Norman.’

‘So it seems.’

‘If I was the younger son of a noble about to be sent to a monastery for the rest of my life, I’d willingly pay to make sure it was a nice one.’

‘Even better to pay with someone else’s money,’ Wat added.

‘You think Egeus may have offered such a thing?’ Hermitage couldn’t immediately think of a “nice” monastery. They weren’t supposed to be nice. Images of the monastery in De’Ath’s Dingle continued to haunt him, but then that place was considered horrible by people who already lived in horrible monasteries.

‘It seems to be his trade,’ Cwen shrugged. ‘A monastery merchant. Who knew there was such a thing?’

‘There isn’t,’ Hermitage insisted.

‘There isn’t anymore,’ Cwen agreed. ‘The only one we know of is dead.’

‘Sounds as if we’d better have a word with young Roger,’ Wat said. ‘He did tell us to find him tonight.’

‘He’s at his worst in the dark,’ Greville muttered. ‘You can go on your own.’

‘He’s only a boy,’ Cwen scoffed at the fear.

‘No, he only looks like a boy. It wouldn’t surprise me to find that he asked Egeus for his money back and when the monk said no, he killed him in one of his tempers, forgetting that he was supposed to be recovering his father’s coin.

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